The present invention relates to an information recording apparatus. More specifically, the present invention concerns an information recording apparatus, an information recording method, and a program allowing a computer to execute a method for providing a top menu with information about each chapter contained in a recording medium subject to a finalization process.
In recent years, particular attention has been paid to an optical disk as a recording medium capable of recording audiovisual data. The DVD-Video standard has been adopted as one optical disk standard. According to the DVD-Video standard, for example, a 12 cm single-side, single-layer disk can store approximately 4.7 gigabytes of data. An 8 cm single-side, single-layer disk can store approximately 1.5 gigabytes of data. The DVD-Video standard has been adopted as media for content products such as movies. Disks compliant with the DVD-Video standard can be reproduced on a DVD-Video standard reproduction apparatus (i.e., a DVD player).
On the other hand, the extent of using optical disks has broadened to ake user recordable optical disks available. For example, there are known the DVD-R standard capable of recording only once on the same area and the DVD-RW standard capable of repeated writing. The DVD-R and DVD-RW disks are capable of updating the recorded contents through write-once or rewriting operations as long as a sufficient capacity remains. However, the updateable state is not compliant with the DVD-Video standard and is not suited for reproduction on the above-mentioned DVD-Video reproduction apparatus. To solve this problem, specified information needs to be written so that the DVD-R or DVD-RW recording format is compliant with the DVD-Video standard. This is called a finalization process. A finalized disk disables additional data recording. By executing unfinalization, a DVD-RW disk can resume the data recordable format.
The DVD-Video standard allows up to 99 titles to be recorded on one disk. Each title can contain up to 99 chapters (PTT: Part of TiTle). When a camcorder (camera and recorder) is used for recording, the above-mentioned DVD-R or DVD-RW disk records one recording unit from the beginning of the recording to the end thereof as a chapter. The chapter is recorded as the same title until a specified condition is satisfied. Specified conditions to close the title include ejecting the disk, reaching 99 chapters in the title, reaching 99 cells in the title, and changing from motion picture recording to still picture recording. When the disk is recorded by the camcorder and then is finalized, a top menu provides a title-based menu. To display a chapter-based menu, it is necessary to select an intended title from the top menu, and then move to a chapter menu corresponding to the title (e.g., see FIG. 4 in JP-A No. 326910/2001).
Logical structures about various information on optical disks are detailed in JP-A No. 50035/1998 (FIG. 7) and JP-A No. 91975/2003 (FIG. 9).
When the above-mentioned prior art is used to record a disk by means of the camcorder, the top menu displays title-based menus. Displaying a chapter-based menu requires moving to a chapter menu corresponding to each title. As mentioned above, however, the camcorder semiautomatically categorizes titles not always in synchronization with the recording contents. Accordingly, it is inconvenient to switch between the top menu and the chapter to reference a chapter-based menu.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to allow the top menu to provide information about chapters contained in a recording medium when it is finalized.